Katju's views on India, Pak only partly correct: RSS ideologue

A leading RSS ideologue backed Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey Katju's reported observation that 'Pakistan is an artificial nation and a failed state' but said it was difficult to accept his entire views on the subject made during a lecture.

A leading RSS ideologue today backed Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey Katju's reported observation that "Pakistan is an artificial nation and a failed state" but said it was difficult to accept his entire views on the subject made during a lecture here.

"Justice Katju's remark that Pakistan is an artificial nation and a failed state is quite evident from the happenings in Pakistan and Bangladesh," according to P Parameswaran, author and director of the RSS intellectual and cultural forum Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram. Seizing on Katju's speech at the Institute of Parliamentary Affairs here yesterday, he said in a statement that the views voiced by him were bound to raise many an eyebrow among large sections of people in Kerala and rest of the country.

"It remains to be seen how the supporters of the partition, especially the Muslim league, respond to Katju's prediction that within 20-25 years India and Pakistan will be reunited," he said. Referring to strains among different sections and regions in Pakistan, he said the objective of All India Muslim League under Jinnah of creating an Islamic nation had miserably failed to materialise. In contrast, Muslims in Hindu majority India had been co-existing with the majority community in "a harmonious and peaceful atmosphere, barring a few relatively minor and sporadic incidents," he said. "Justice Katju deserves congratulations for his courageous statement that reunion between the two countries alone can bring about lasting peace in this region. But scholars of history will find it difficult to subscribe to his views that India is largely a nation of immigrants," Parameswaran said. The theory of Aryan invasion floated by the imperialist historians in pursuance of their 'Divide and Rule' policy had been totally rejected by various researchers, he said. "It is true that India is a land of diversity but it is not true that the diversity is due to waves of immigration. It is a false reading of history," the Sangh ideologue said.

Objecting to justice Katju's view that it was Akbar and Nehru who deserved credit for India's unity, Parameswaran said centuries before Akbar was born, it was the Sankaracharya who established four Mutts in the four corners of India and demonstrated that culturally and spiritually India is one. Mahatma Gandhi also in his book 'Hind Swaraj' had stated the practice of pilgrimage of people from one part of the country to the other was instituted by our ancestors in order to strengthen and preserve the unity of India. Swami Vivekananda was the personification of India`s unity and it was he who inspired even Gandhiji and Nehru to fight for India`s freedom. "It is unfortunate that a person of the standing and understanding of justice Katju should have turned a blind eye to these facts," he added.